Oct. 27 is “National American Beer Day.” What Was Your First Favorite Beer?

What was your favorite first beer? I was 17 when I went to college in 1967 so I was not "legal" yet. Four weeks later, however, BINGO....and off I went. My college friends and I frequented our hangout bars in Albany back in my college days. I remember my favorite beer was PBR....Pabst Blue Ribbon! For some reason many of the bars, if not all of them, carried PBR in cans and bottles. Today, I still like a beer on the weekend but because of age and weight I stick to Michelob Ultra for calorie reasons.

Still, surprise of surprises, I did find a PBR bar in town. And I go there every month with my guy friends. The B-Side Ballroomin the Clinton Plaza actually has Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap! Sure, I get one. And yes, it does take me back to my college days when my first "legal" beer, and my favorite for a couple of years, was a cold PBR at the Washington Tavern on Western Avenue in Albany!

What was your first favorite beer?

National American Beer Day is observed annually by beer drinkers across the nation on October 27.

There are more than 2,100 breweries that manufacture beer in the United States. They range in size from industry giants to brewpubs and microbreweries.

The U.S. produced 196 million barrels of beer in 2009.

The U.S. consumes roughly 20 US gallons of beer per capita annually.

In 2008, the United States was ranked sixteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China